John Busbee

Background

About John Busbee

John Busbee is a creative project developer and cultural catalyst. His diversified career includes manager/performer for a national touring theatre company, development work in the for-profit and non-profit sectors, production specialist for media including feature films and national commercials, strategic development and consultation work for individuals, organizations and communities, and producing a weekly, 2-hour arts & culture radio program, The Culture Buzz, since 2007. Writing credits include regular contributions to Art Scene Magazine, dsm Magazine, ia Magazine, Civil War News, Voices from the Prairie (Humanities Iowa), and Iowa History Journal, where his cover story on the Littleton Brothers of Louisa County, was recognized as one of the top three history stories published in 2014 by the Governor’s Excellence in History Awards. His play, Bonds with Community, premieres the summer of 2017, following Bonds of War (2015) and Bonds at Home (2016), a trilogy commissioned by and produced for Greenfield, Iowa in the Norman Lear Theater. Current work includes writing a book based on the Littleton Brothers’ Civil War legacy, completing work as producer for CD album, “The Plow in the Oak,” coordinator/writer for a Sidey Collection Exhibit, and a one-man play based on K. H. Sidey, the editor of the Adair County Free Press during the World War II era. He is a founder of the Greater Des Moines Cloris Leachman Excellence in Theatre Awards. Busbee was appointed to Governor Branstad’s Iowa History Fund selection group that awards funds from this private foundation to support worthy Iowa history projects. Busbee received the Iowa Governor’s Arts Award in 2014 for Collaboration & Partnership in the Arts. As a location manager, recent work includes a Coca Cola Olympics commercial, a national Mack Truck series, the digital web series "Embeds," the first season of the television series,"Play by Play," and seasons two and three for this series, now green-lit for production.